


The Moon Wolf and the Dog Star

by Hathanta



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Wolfstar - Fandom
Genre: AU, M/M, fairy tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-04
Updated: 2013-01-04
Packaged: 2017-11-23 16:09:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/624039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hathanta/pseuds/Hathanta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: The embodiment of the dog star falls in love with the Moon Wolf, a creature that is only human at the full moon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Moon Wolf and the Dog Star

Listen here, I'll tell you a secret: the moon walks the earth.  
There is a wolf who wanders forests, whose eyes flash yellow as the moon and gleam with lunacy. His fur is grey-brown like a lichen mottled stone, and when he lopes along a shimmering dust rises from it that will bring you dreams and madness.  
But beware the Moon Wolf's bite; his jaws are strong and his teeth are sharp and if he tastes your blood he will pass on his curse and give you an animal form, beast or bird or reptile that you can only shed with the waxing of the moon. Once a king hunted the Moon Wolf; people say he turned into a stag – and I've heard stories of a Nightingale far to the south who is sometimes a woman. When, once a month, the full round disc completes the sky, the wolf will also meld and change; lengthen and snap out his bones until he rises a man and shakes the dust from his hairless skin.  
And on this night every month the Dog Star comes to meet him.  
It is very rare for a star to fall in love with a human, and even rarer for it to deem anything else but one of the other sparkling residents of the black night sky worthy of its affections.  
But sometimes it happens.  
And sometimes a star falls in love with the moon, and the Dog Star, Sirius, had fallen very much in love with the Moon Wolf.  
For many years Sirius had watched the monthly transformations of wolf into dusty-haired man and longed to be at his side. He had twisted and turned, and tried to unstick himself from his spot in the sky – but to no avail. The blackness seemed to have him firm in its grip. So finally he stilled and let out a sigh, and simply wished.  
And when a star wishes it is a very powerful thing.  
Sirius appeared on the Earth in a blizzard of silver lights that flurried around him like snowflakes until settling in his midnight hair and pinpointing his fingers. He stretched out his arms, marvelling at his own human beauty and laughed aloud, a barking exulted laugh.  
And that was when he first met eyes with the Moon-Wolf-turned-man. Of course, the clever wolf immediately recognised him for what he was and named him, "Dog Star."  
With a flourish, Sirius bowed low before the moon and rose with his hand proffered.  
"Might I have this dance?"  
"What on Earth do you mean?" the man asked in puzzlement.  
"Dance with me." Sirius urged, "Take my hand." He flashed a grin at the wolf, flexing his slender fingers. Hesitantly the Moon Wolf stepped forward and slipped his scarred hand into the star's, his touch as soft as a breath.  
Immediately he was pulled forward and spun into the Dog Star's arms, where he found himself following Sirius' lead, as together they stepped and turned to an unheard song, a rhythm that the stars pulsed and the moon swayed to, that beat in both of their hearts, and ebbed and flowed and glimmered across the sky.  
Together at the full moon they danced to the music of the night.  
They went on like this for many months, meeting and dancing and talking and dreaming of things they knew in their midnight hearts they could never have; a home, a family, a life together.  
"When this is all over we'll be together. You'll see, Moony." Sirius had once said, and the Moon Wolf had simply nodded, and rested his head on the star's shoulder. And they were content.

Until Sirius' family of stars found out.  
Next full moon when Sirius was again away from the sky they held a meeting, gathering in the dusky clouds to discuss their wayward son.  
"It's unnatural" spoke Rigel of Orion.  
"He's either down there fraternizing with the beast or up here pining after it" sneered Bellatrix, with her brother Saiph nodding his agreement beside her.  
"Something has to be done," he said, and all looked at Arcturus, who surveyed his dynasty in silence, and then nodded once with the finality of a guillotine.  
"Yes. Something will be done."  
The stars all murmured their approval and the scintillating sound whirred around the crowd, dipping and eddying, but passing over one, Regulus, who said nothing.

The confrontation happened when Sirius returned that morning to find himself surrounded by his fellows. Before he could utter a word, Arcturus spoke in his quiet, booming voice, "Sirius, you are hereby confined to your place in the sky and may never set foot on Earth again or risk exile to that plane."  
Sirius' eyes widened and on instinct he willed himself back to the Earth where he had been but moments before, yet as he summoned up his power, black ropes materialised from the very sky, winding and tightening around him, binding him in his place.  
"Why?" he roared, "Why are you doing this?"  
"Think on your actions, Dog Star, then you might remember your breeding," and with that his family returned to their homes. Immediately Sirius began to struggle against his bindings, pulling and twisting as he done so many moons ago, when he had first tired to move from the sky. He gave up, panting, and drew on the power inside him again, wishing harder than ever, wishing... wishing... 

The new moon came, and then the thin slice of a crescent. Sirius wished. The crescent fattened and swelled to a half. The Dog Star's glow dimmed. The half grew gibbous, and finally the night of the full moon arrived, with the swollen disc sitting plump in the sky. Sirius hung from his bonds, too tired to wish or even shine. He counted the hours, imagining the wolf, how betrayed he must be feeling, how hurt, how angry, and how he must be standing there, with his soft silver gold skin crisscrossed and sewn with scars, his dusty brown hair, his autumn eyes.  
"Help," he breathed helplessly, "-Moony..."  
And sometime around morning help arrived. A whisper of silver alerted Sirius to their presence. He looked up and saw a familiar star ghosting toward him through the clouds.  
"Regulus?"  
"Shh." The star shushed him, "I can't bear to see you so faint, and I know you won't listen to Arcturus-"  
"Well why should I?"  
"- and if you go back to earth they'll never let you back up here – but it's what you want..."  
"Yes."  
Regulus was silent a moment, and then with a small gesture, he drew the black ties from around his brother.  
"Go."  
"Thank you-"  
"Go."  
Like filling his lungs with clear air, Sirius gathered up his magic and sent himself spinning down to the planet. He arrived with the sun, and turned in time to see round human eyes become slanted yellow wolf eyes. As the last vestiges of moonlight fled the sky, the wolf's heavy forepaws thumped onto the ground, and he rose, hackles raised and a twisted snarl tugging at his lips.  
And then he turned tail and ran, as though running from his own feral curse.  
"No! Moony!" Recklessly Sirius plunged after him, arms attaining tiny stinging cuts from the sharp bushes and feet pressing down on tooth-like stones. "Moony! He called, rushing on, not even certain if he was still following the wolf, until he tripped headlong into a bramble thicket. Cursing, he rolled and tried to pull himself up, his clothes snagging on the thorns. Finally he yanked himself free, only to stagger head first into a low branch. He sat down hard on his backside.  
The Dog Star pressed a hand to his forehead, waiting for the world to stop lurching around him, squinching his eyes shut and just trying not to cry in frustration. He steeled himself and stood, stumbled as black threatened to fuzz out his vision and leant on a tree for support.  
Birds chirruped, insects hummed, the sun shone on him and he felt physically sick.  
Hellfire washed over him while icy cold welled up from his bones; the combination set him shivering like a plucked string even as sweat beaded on his skin. He found himself suddenly on all fours, retching from a throat lined with sand, and began to draw up the power to take him back to the sky. No. He forced himself to let it go. He would not let them win.  
Sirius flopped onto his side, panting like a dog, and squinted at the low hanging sun through the trees. Stars were not meant to be out by day, not in the sky and certainly not on Earth in a weak human form.  
He was going to die. Sirius knew it and accepted it with a calm clarity. He would die here on Earth and spite all his family by never returning to them and their ancestral home.  
And then he heard a crackle of leaves, a slight rustling and opened his eyes to see the Moon Wolf, glaring at him, snuffing his scent on the air. "Moony" he groaned, and the wolf let a growl rumble out of its throat.  
He couldn't die. He might be weak and sick and unable to return home, but he couldn't give up. He couldn't leave Moony.  
With a grunt he heaved himself onto his elbow and the wolf fled into the undergrowth. Looking around he saw a hollow had been dug under the bramble patch, which he dragged himself to and crawled into. It was dark in the den, and pleasantly cool. He turned his back to the sun and closed his eyes, dropping almost immediately into an exhausted sleep. 

Sirius awoke in the evening as his shivering subsided, letting out a short sigh as his body stilled. Wearily he crawled out of the hole and peered around, dimly hoping to see a wolf that was not there.  
A month. He had to last a month.  
He noticed a strange, ache in his stomach and realised he was hungry. So he was going to have to feed this human body. He grimaced up at his former home as his family gradually lit up the sky, and stopped himself from wishing he were with them.  
A month. He had to last a month.  
And he would, even if it killed him. 

A month passed and finally Sirius raised his eyes to the glow of a full round moon. The man stood stiffly and looked around him. His dirtied and torn clothes hung from his now skeletal frame. His once handsome face was gaunt, his cheeks hollow, his glinting eyes sunken and ringed with smears of darkness. Tiny snowflake stars still pinpointed his figure, still glimmered in his lank hair, but they seemed now a memory of what he had once been; a last echo of the shining, handsome, fearless star.  
And now he waited for his Moon Wolf, uncertain of whether the spirit would even arrive. This was the clearing where they had last seen each other, on that fated sunrise, but where Moony was now, Sirius had no idea; he usually located the wolf from the sky and travelled straight to him, but now trapped on the all too tangible earth, he was lost with no way to find him.  
Hesitantly he croaked out the Moon Wolf's name, and then swallowed and called more clearly... nothing. He stepped forward. Turned. Came to a decision. Discarded it with a shake of his head. Turned. And started to pace.  
Should he leave the clearing? What chance did he have of finding the wolf? Should he wait and see if Moony would return? He pulled at his hair with ragged nails and cursed the distant stars.

Hours later the Moon Wolf arrived. With a sudden rustle and crackling, the man stumbled into the clearing, looking about him wildly.  
"Moony!" The Dog Star surged to his feet, and the Moon Wolf's eyes lit up as he rushed to Sirius, embracing him like a lover, kissing him reflexively and in earnest. They pulled back a moment later, foreheads touching, noses aligned, heavy breaths mingling but mouths not quite touching.  
"Sirius, I can feel all of your ribs."  
"I know."  
"What happened? I remember last month –"  
"Shh." Sirius shook his head as the wolf looked at him in confusion.  
"I'll –... I'll explain." The star moved to a trunk and sat down against it, pulling the wolf down with him. Moony leaned into him and took his hand. Sirius looked at their linked fingers, both pale in the moonlight, his own pearly sheen complemented by the warm-cream colour of his partner's. He raised that hand to his face and kissed it, brushing his lips across the trailing scars.  
"Sirius?"  
And so the star plunged into the story, recounting the confrontation, his confinement, unexpected rescue by Regulus and finally his month spent on Earth. The Moon Wolf had been silent through the telling, except for when Sirius had described the first morning, when he murmured "So it _was_ you. I thought I had dreamt that." And now that Sirius had finished he said quietly, "So this is goodbye."  
"What?" Sirius asked in total confusion, turning to face him.  
"Surely your family will never again let you return to Earth?" he asked in puzzlement.  
"Yes – that's why I'm not going back there! I'm going to stay on Earth with you."  
"But –" the wolf protested, "You'll die! Look at you, you can hardly stand!"  
"I lasted a month."  
"And you won't last another – Sirius, you have to go back to the sky."  
"And leave you?!"  
"Yes!"  
"No." Defiantly each man held the other's gaze, not quite glaring, yellow amber meeting gray silk, and each reflecting a lightening sky. Sirius closed his eyes and pulled the Moon Wolf against him, nuzzling his face into his hair, disturbing a cloud of dust.  
"Let's not fight. It's almost morning."  
Moony gripped Sirius' shirt in his fist and turned his face into the star's neck, pressing in for a moment before pulling away, looking firmly at Sirius.  
"When I change, you must go back."  
"No."  
"Sirius, I don't want to have to watch you die!"  
"And I'd rather die than live without you! And anyway, I could survive another month!"  
"You don't know how to!" The wolf voiced the harsh truth, "You have the weak body of a human. You are not a beast that can hunt for itself."  
The Dog Star opened his mouth to reply, but stilled as the look of a new idea splashed across his face. Even as he began to speak the wolf was shaking his head.  
"No – No. Don't even think about it."  
"But if you bit me –"  
"I won't do it."  
"– I could be a beast –"  
"It's a curse!"  
"I'd be able to survive and stay with you!"  
"And you don't even know what you'd turn into!"  
They finished on the same breath, Sirius looking hopeful, Moony closed.  
"Think about it –"  
"You think about it!"  
The Moon Wolf suddenly shook his head, as though trying to free it from a net; "I can feel the sun coming up. Sirius – shush. I love you." He kissed him, soundly, completely, then unhitched his arms from around his neck and moved back into the clearing. Sirius made to follow him but Moony held up a hand to stop him.  
"Don't."  
"I'm not leaving."  
"Just – please." His voice broke on the word as the night fled his body. He hunched, jaw elongating, body shortening, new muscles bunching, and all over him, hair rippling and growing. Sirius waited. Waited until he saw the black pupils slit and then launched himself at the beast. Unprepared, the wolf rolled under him, struggled, and kicked him off. He hit the ground hard and winded, but kept his purpose and immediately tackled the wolf again. This time he was ready, all snarling eyes and thrashing far, and crushing jaws that clamped around the Dog Star's wrist, and thick, knife-like fangs that pieced his flesh and scraped his bones. And all around them, swirling clouds and eddies of dust. 

_Anger. Hurt. The pull of something below the horizon. Licking human-not-human blood off his jaws. Salt. Iron. Hot. It dripped from his muzzle and pattered to the ground._  
The shining human was still there, a few bounds away, curled and shaking. Like a quake emanating from his chest, the wolf growled deeply, and snuffed the air. Something was happening. The man's back had arched and his form was shifting, the white pinprick stars were shimmering, moving, settling in the new form.  
The wolf padded closer. This was better – something he could understand. He gently nudged the heap of black fur and huffed at it. Slowly it raised a canine head and blinked at him. He pranced away and watched as the dog heaved itself to its shaky paws and shook out its black, star speckled fur. He looked up at the wolf and began to wag his tail.  
 _Moony?_  
The wolf came forward and sniffed the other animal. Familiar. Good. This was... this was...  
 _Sirius._  
Joyfully the wolf butted his head against the dog's shoulder and in return the dog nuzzled into his neck ruff, and then leapt up and pushed him over. He growled playfully and the dog yipped as they rolled, coming to rest in a heap of dust and stars.

And they still live like that today, the wolf with the moon in his eyes and the dog with stars in his fur, roaming across the Earth. And once a month they change, the Moon Wolf and the Dog Star, they regain their human forms under the light of the full moon and together they dance.


End file.
